* * * * *
The late Dr. Georg Bühler's essay _Ueber die Indische Secte der
Jaina_, read at the anniversary meeting of the Imperial Academy of
Sciences of Vienna on the 26th May 1887, has been for some time out of
print in the separate form. Its value as a succinct account of the
Śrâvaka sect, by a scholar conversant with them and their religious
literature is well known to European scholars; but to nearly all educated
natives of India works published in German and other continental languages
are practically sealed books, and thus the fresh information which they
are well able to contribute is not elicited. It is hoped that the
translation of this small work may meet with their acceptance and that of
Europeans in India and elsewhere to whom the original is either unknown or
who do not find a foreign language so easy to read as their own.
The translation has been prepared under my supervision, and with a few
short footnotes. Professor Bühler's long note on the authenticity of the
Jaina tradition I have transferred to an appendix (p. 48) incorporating
with it a summary of what he subsequently expanded in proof of his thesis.
To Colebrooke's account of the Tirthaṅkaras reverenced by the Jainas,
but little has been added since its publication in the ninth volume of the
_Asiatic Researches_; and as these are the centre of their worship,
always represented in their temples, and surrounded by attendant
figures,—I have ventured to add a somewhat fuller account of them and a
summary of the general mythology of the sect, which may be useful to the
archaeologist and the student of their iconography.
Edinburgh, April 1903. J. BURGESS.